Monday, 22 July 2013

MAN OF STEEL, DUDE.

I read an article the other day about the power of Twitter
(the luddite in me wept as I read it) to sell or doom films and how the general collective is becoming more powerful in their opinions than those of professional
critics. Even on movie posters now, you see quotes from tweets from the average
citizen giving you their feelings on the film, usually in that amazingly
eloquent (yes, that's sarcasm) and concise twitter way, “Man of Steel rocked, dude;” As you can imagine, I’m of course in mixed minds about
this for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, I must say that I’ve always had my issues with
critics in the first place, be it a professional or the man at the bus stop
giving me his feelings on the latest this or that. Art, whatever form it comes
in, is a subjective thing. My favorite film or book could make your worst films of all
times list and vice versa (I’m proud to say I hated Atonement and Love Actually
and am in the minority on that one, so critics be damned). In fact, most of the time, I rarely read
critiques of books or films unless I’m looking to get an overall consensus of
what I’m in for, especially when my husband is trying to convince me to watch something (he adorably forgets that I'm a pop culture whore and if he reads me off a list of actors that star in the film beginning with Jean Claude Van Damme, I'm NOT going to watch it). Even then, if there’s a reason I want to see (or read) it, no
one is going to dissuade me. The other instance I may turn to a critic in the professional sphere is if the film made no sense or
confused the hell out of me and I simply want to know what the heck went on,
like in the case of say, Inception.

But now with the peaking of Twitter, the movie companies at large have
realized that there is power in numbers, a lot of power, much more so than some guy sitting in his office with his laptop discussing the character development in the latest Ryan Gosling film. As soon as the
audience sees a film and hits the streets afterward, Twitter can be flooded
with opinions, tirades, compliments or protestations that the film in question
is worst piece of garbage since The Spice Girl Movie (subjective, remember).
And of course, that mass voice has legs and there is nothing harder to keep
quiet than the Twittersphere. Not to mention, the venacular used on Twitter is widely embraced by the movie going public (usually ranging in the 16-25 demographic). They respond to phrases that are short, snappy and full of self righteousness.

And to no surprise to any one, there are things I like about this
collective power...and things that scare the bejeezus out of me. Firstly, any
time the people realize the power of their voices I get excited; in fact, I don’t think the collective knows the half of what we could accomplish if we simply put
our minds and voices to it, be it sink the next Fast and Furious installment
(yes please) or voice our opinions about politics and so on. Then again, I also
have my concerns that any Tom, Dick or Moron can hit the Twittersphere and
voice their opinion about, well, anything and everything. Cause there are many
people out there paying to see Fast & the Furious in droves and keeping
that garbage in theaters, and if they like that, then I’m pretty certain they’re
not going to share my opinion on the latest art house film, nor do I want to
hear them try to deconstruct it after several beers at their local watering hole.

You see, subjective. And as they always say, everyone’s a
critic…. including me. So, would I tell you to see the latest Superman film? Well, I shall put on my Twitter hat and say this, "it's loud as h*ll (and made me feel old), but damn can that man fill a suit."